A visit to my parents on their mission

For our summer trip, we decided to fly to Santa Rosa, California to visit my parents. We left Tuesday afternoon so we could do some school shopping in Vegas. We ate at the Cheese Cake Factory & then swam at the hotel. We had to get up early Wednesday morning to catch our flight.

My mom & dad picked us up at the Oakland airport, about 45-60 minutes from Santa Rosa. I may or may not have got a little teary eyed hugging them & seeing them for the first time in months. They took us straight over to see the Oakland temple. It is a beatuiful temple.

 The view the Oakland temple has.

 This river runs all the way through the parking lot. It is seriously amazing & kind of reminds me of the Hawaii temple.

 Man were these kids happy to see their grandparents. When the trip was over, we asked Ezra what his favorite thing we did was & he said just seeing grandma & grandpa. There were a few tears shed by these 2 when it was time to go.

 Afer seeing the temple, we headed over to the Jelly Belly Factory. We thought it might be fun for the kids. It was kind of boring, not much interaction. But it was interesting learning about how they're made.

 On the drive to Santa Rosa, they took us through Napa Valley, whine country. It is beautiful. Santa Rosa is right there in whine country - so it's  an awesome drive.

 When we got to their apartment, I was shocked how small their living space was & they are almost paying as my for rent as we are for our house payment!!! It's funny that my parents came from a 6500 square foot home to a little 800 square foot apartment!! They made do with what they had though. There was even a 2nd bedroom for us to sleep in but the kids slept on the floor in my parents bedroom.  At night, my parents took us to the mission office to see where they go every day & then to visit a family they have been trying to activate the last 7 or 8 months. It was an eye opener to see how these people live in these tiny apartments in just GHETTOness but they make do. It made me appreciate my home so much because I'm always wanting a bigger home or something different. I'm thankful we even have a home & a yard.


DAY 2:

We woke up early to beat traffic to go to San Francisco. I have never been there before & I was in love. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to get there & came right onto a street with the cutest homes ever. If we had no kids, I would want to live there.

We went over to a dock to kill time before we had to catch our ferry over to Alcatraz. I was a little worried how the kids would do at the prison, but Adde was into as much as we were & Ezra just walked around being good as ever {until the end when he just wanted us to hold him}.

 I love this picture with the buildings on the hill behind the kids running to my dad.

 It was FREEZING on the ferry ride over. I think the high in San Francisco was only like 65 or something close to it. We had jackets on the entire time.

 Here's the city behind Kel

 You can see the Golden Gate Bridge

 This is what Alcatraz looks like coming from the ferry. It was only about a 10-15 min boat ride

 As soon as we got there, we had a picnic & then headed up the steep hill to go & tour the prison. Ezra had to pee probably 10 times total on the island. When this kid drinks alot - you can guarantee he'll be in the bathroom every 20 minutes.

 Here's the prison from the outside.

 Right as you walk in, you walk into the showers....it's crazy to be there. They give you headphones to listen to your own tour. Ezra's wouldn't fit so he kept his off but Adde was really cute. She would tell us it says turn right now or did you hear that battle? She got really into it.

 This is D block where they bad criminals spent day & sometimes weeks in pitch black.

 warden's house that burned in a fire in the 70's

 Here's the view from Alcatraz of San Francisco.

 After spending most the day on Alcatraz, we headed to Fisherman's Wharf & got some souvenirs & ate some sea food. Then off to driving around San Fransisco. We were going to get on a trolley to site see but way too much walking just to get there & it was rush hour with everyone getting off work. So we decided to drive instead, which I'm glad we did because we got to see stuff the trolley wouldn't have taken us to.

Here's at the top of a hill of a street. It is seriously insane that people even thought to build on these hills.

 One of the "crookedest" streets in the world. It is so steep that they added 8 switchbacks going down. This is at the top going down.

 This is looking back at the switchbacks. I love the gardens in between each switchback. & the row of homes along are just darling.

 We had to stop for my dad to see the Giants stadium. Kelly tried to talk us into going back Friday night to see a game but we were too exhausted to make the drive.

DAY 3:
Redwood Forest.

 Kelly kept pretending like there were little elves & trolls living in the trees which led to Adde thinking there were fairies in the forest too. We took about a 2 mile easy hike around seeing all thes trees.

 The kids were able to fit under a tree they are so enormous!

After the Redwood Forest, we took a little drive around to the coast. The little towns all around it are very artsy & cool. We made it to Turtle Head look out & got out to see the ocean. I think it was about 60 degrees near the ocean & the water was FREEZING!! but the sand was warm.

Adde found a jelly fish. She loved just drawing all over the sand.

 Ez was not happy at first because he was so tired. But then once he saw the water, he wanted to be right there with Adde playing. The view behind Kelly is beautiful. & it looks like it's going to storm but it's mist. About 2 miles away from this was blue, blue skies & the weather went up about 10 degrees.

 My mom, dad & Adde all got SOAKED from this huge wave. Seriously  - ice cold water!

 After, we drove to Bodega Bay & stopped at a little ma & pa shop to get us some clam chowder that was delicious. We drove on & stopped to another look out where we were able to spot whales. Ezra never looked in the right spot to see them, but the rest of us did.

DAY 4:

We had to leave this day but were not to fly out until 5:00. We had time to kill before having to leave for Oakland so we stayed in Santa Rosa & went to the Charles Schulz museum. It was interesting but I think the kids got a little bored. They loved the drawing room & outside where all the statues were.

 This is a huge wall made out of tiles from one years worth of Charlie Brown comic strips

On the way to Oakland, we decided we would stop & eat near the airport. Little did we know that the airport is right in the GHETTO I think we were the only white people in a 20 mile radius. I felt so uncomfortable the whole time so I was happy to get to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye to my parents. But I'm so glad we went to see where they are serving & what they do day to day. We miss them so much but they are half way done & we'll see them in April. It's been going a lot faster since now but at first it dragged {I think cuz we skyped too much - we don't do it quite as often anymore}. I know they love where they are too & are having the time of their lives.